Securitization represents a critical step forward and will help drive the solar marketplace well beyond its current scale. However, securitization does not come without risk. As the industry continues to mature, so must the underlying systems that protect consumers and investors alike.

For the first time, the Investor Confidence Project (ICP) used its protocols to leverage financing for a major project -- helping bring together technical standards and performance data into a single package. The project in Connecticut represents a small but significant step forward for streamlining efficiency projects, which often suffer from a patchwork of standards that create a bottleneck for financing.

Cost-effectiveness testing is such a complicated and often boring topic that it gets overlooked as one of the key barriers to achieving our energy efficiency goals. For the foreseeable future, the funding stream for energy efficiency will primarily be coming from ratepayer funds (utilities and PUCs), where spending on energy efficiency programs funded by electric and natural gas utility customers will double by 2025 to about $9.5 billion per year

Everyone avoids talking about sex and money in polite conversation. In the power industry specifically, it may be even more gauche to talk about money than sex. But, a little sexy talk about money may be exactly what’s needed to give a lift to energy efficiency projects in search of funding.

Wall Street’s new strategy for investing in good deeds. “We need better data,” says Matt Golden, a California consultant who has long worked on scaling up residential energy-efficiency improvements. “This is what it really takes to get the market going.” [+] MORE

Addressing our current energy crisis would be so much simpler if we were all as programmable as thermostats. But we’re not. Our nation’s attitudes and behaviors about climate change, energy efficiency. [+] MORE

Lowe's Cos.' (LOW) slogan about "building something together" normally refers to projects like kitchen floors and backyard decks, but now it can be applied to companies, following its participation in an $8 million financing round for home energy efficiency start-up Recurve Inc. [+] MORE

Recurve, a startup that helps make homes more energy-efficient and thereby slash their monthly electricity bills, has brought in $8 million in a second round of capital with about $4 million came from major hardware store chain Lowe's. [+] MORE

Four decades after the first Earth Day, the circle of people working toward a cleaner, greener world has expanded way beyond treehugging hippies, red-paint-throwing protesters, posturing politicos, and card-carrying members of enviro groups. [+] MORE

Recurve named 3rd among Fast Company's 2010 ranking of the World's Most Innovative Companies in Energy ... an honor that cements its place among other top energy innovators like First Solar and Silver Spring Networks. [+] MORE

Matt Golden is the founder and president of Recurve, a San Francisco-based company that provides detailed energy audits and green energy remodeling to Bay Area homeowners; several venture capitalists are among its clients. [+] MORE

Recurve recently did some simple improvements on reporter Sam Eaton's home to plug energy leaks. By insulating and sealing leaks Recurve was able to boost the overall efficiency of his house by more than 70 percent. [+] MORE

Home Star cash is not just for caulkers. The workforce that will benefit from its incentives includes a wide range of skilled workers. These include insulators, air sealing technicians, heating and cooling technicians, electricians and many more. [+] MORE

While the government has offered cash incentives for consumers to trade in their old gas-guzzlers, most Americans still live in houses that are real "clunkers" in terms of household energy efficiency. [+] MORE

Should the U.S. government be doing more to subsidize conservation? Projects that improve efficiency pay for themselves quickly, the advocates say, and help people and businesses save money. Renewables, meanwhile, cost more money to achieve the same reductions [+] MORE

Want to cut your home electricity bill? While solar may seem like the way to go, many homeowners are shelving the idea in favor of insulating their attics ... just part of an energy retrofitting performed by Recurve. [+] MORE

Systems, like ... solar panels, that enable homes to generate their own electricity may get a lot of attention, but finding ways to reduce the need for energy in the first place is just as important. Green homes start with a sealed envelope. Matt Golden, Recurve founder, says that a typical home exchanges around 35% of its air with the outside each hour, whereas carefully sealed "green" homes rate around 7%. [+] MORE

To see exactly how these energy audits work, The San Francisco Chronicle called on Recurve to assess a 1950s rancher. The process consisted of a questionnaire to help determine my carbon footprint; a three-hour visit; and a summary report, called a Home Performance GreenUP, that offered details and estimates for recommended work. [+] MORE

San Francisco-based startup Recurve estimates that homeowners could reduce their energy costs by up to 50 percent by taking simple steps like fixing bad duct work and installing the right insulation. And since 21 percent of U.S. energy consumption goes into American homes, greater efficiency could help reduce the country's overall energy footprint, too. [+] MORE